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Saturdays=Youth

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 29 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 29 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Mute
Release Date: 15 April 2008
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rock, Indie, Electronic
Summary
The fifth album for the French electronic group led by Anthony Gonzalez was produced with Ken Thomas and Ewan Pearson.
Also By This Artist: Before The Dawn Heals Us Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The Onion (A.V. Club)
For all the awe kindled by the effectively perfect sound in a transcendent highlight like 'Kim & Jessie,' the real triumph is that M83 uses such a setting for more simple melody and emotion than ever before.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
Saturdays=Youth contains some of the band's best songs to date. [Spring 2008, p.77]
Pitchfork
Saturdays=Youth meaningfully diversifies M83's catalog while retaining Gonzalez's indelible fingerprint.
Read Full Review >cokemachineglow
Of course it’s cheeseball, as we all were at that age. But that’s ultimately what makes this accessible, highly-listenable album a reinvigoration of both catalogue and genre.
Read Full Review >Lost At Sea
Like it or not, the 1980s are part of who we are and Gonzales' homage to the decade is the closest thing to perfect he's achieved.
Read Full Review >No Ripcord
Nonetheless, Saturdays = Youth finds itself in the higher echelons of '08 so far for radically different reasons, and, unpredictedly, it wouldn't be too surprising if M83's decision to avoid making a by-the-numbers album saw those overdue dividends finally reaching them.
Read Full Review >Paste Magazine
The clear standout, though, is 'Kim & Jessie,' which convincingly recaptures the magic gloss of Tears for Fears with a propulsive undercurrent and an elegant use of space. One of the best songs of 2008 so far, it’s the key destination in a stunning journey.
Read Full Review >Delusions of Adequacy
Fans of previous M83 albums should still enjoy Saturdays as it doesn't veer too far from the template established on the past few albums.
Read Full Review >Magnet
On fourth album Saturdays=Youth, the warm synthesizers are still in play and Gonzalez’s propensity for beguiling bombast is undiminished, but by imposing structure and melodic discipline on these sprawling compositions, he’s made them even more elegant and effective.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
As super-stylized as its sounds and emotions are, Saturdays=Youth always seems genuine, even when it feels like its songs are made from the memories of other songs.
Read Full Review >Slant Magazine
And though analog synthesizer remains definitional of the M83's sound, they open the arrangements to include more naturalistic instrumentation as well. The approach allows this band named for a galaxy to seem more grounded, and yet more universal, than ever before.
Read Full Review >The Phoenix
This is an album steeped in a generation’s worth of nostalgia, but unlike most rehashed coming-of-age exercises, Saturdays = Youth manages, in its own small way, to offer something entirely new.
Read Full Review >Village Voice
Anthony Gonzalez nurtures nostalgia but isn't enslaved by it, and Saturdays=Youth teems with equal parts ache and pomp as a result.
Read Full Review >Blender
Filled with ambitious production and winsome nostalgia, Saturdays is an otherworldly chronicle of adolescence only a starry-eyed 20-something could make.
Read Full Review >Billboard
Though nothing quite reaches the heights of past work, there's ambience to spare on "We Own the Night" and the lush "Highway of Endless Dreams."
Read Full Review >Drowned In Sound
Predictably there’s a slide towards more abstracted material toward the latter half, and parts of Saturdays=Youth are all hairspray and no body, but the whole thing sweeps along with such an irrepressible mix of youthful invincibility (‘We Own The Sky’) and flouncing fatalism (‘Too Late’, ‘Graveyard Girl’) it sucks the wind right out of your cheeks before you’ve had chance to huff.
Read Full Review >Alternative Press
M83's latest flight into the synthesized stratosphere is so steeped in '80s influence, it;s as if teen filmmaker John Hughes was lurking behind the keyboards. [June 2008, p.137]
Almost Cool
If you go back to the touchpoints of the era in terms of music, there's certainly plenty of awful lyrics, and while I can often overlook lyrics if the music itself is strong, Saturdays = Youth sometimes lapses into a sort of emo shoegazer feel that's simply a bit too sickly-sweet for me.
Read Full Review >musicOMH.com
A real mixed bag, then--M83 still show plenty of guile and in their best moments present music of hidden power and grace.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
To call Saturdays=Youth derivative is to pay it a compliment, because every retro synth sounds calibrated to provide the maximum nostalgic rush.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
[A] disappointment. [Spring 2008, p.77]
PopMatters
So Saturdays=Youth isn’t an unqualified success, and probably won’t be as warmly welcomed by fans as M83’s previous albums have been. Still, there are plenty of moments on the disc that remind you why this pulsing, layered music is so powerful.
Read Full Review >Spin
M83 needs to step out of the '80s, and back into the future. [Apr 2008, p.100]
Read Full Review >Urb
M83's new effort saunters like a slow dance from "Sixteen Candles." [Mar/Apr 2008, p.109]
Read Full Review >Dusted Magazine
With the exception of the engorged 'Couleurs,' 'Dark Moves of Love's' lift into the stratosphere, and the ambient feather-on-the-breath drones of 'Midnight Souls Still Remain,' Saturdays = Youth is strangely leaden, an album fenced off by its conceptual constraints.
Read Full Review >Uncut
Saturdays=Youth is embarrassingly earnest. [May 2008, p.102]
Tiny Mix Tapes
I’m deflated again, as all Gonzalez does with this blank canvas for electronic experimentation is cycle two chords over and over with a little synth sprinkled on top.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
Halfway through, though, Gonzalez's self-indulgence gets the better of him and you're left with half-baked ideas and little else. [June 2008, p.145]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.2 (out of 10) based on 29 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Minh N gave it a9:
This album as a whole is fucking great. I think it's either you love this band or hate them. You Appearing, Kim & Jessie, Skin Of The Night, Graveyard Girl, Couleurs, We Own The Sky... all awesome tracks.
Joe T. gave it a7:
This M83 album is pleasant enough, but it needs something to help it go against the grain rather than just tip-toe through the tulips.
Adam P. gave it an8:
I dig the mixing and the sonic textures, but it seems like my fellow indie-music-philes overrate this album just a tad. Off the top of my head I can think of more than 30 albums released in 2008 that were better than this one.
Andre C. gave it a10:
Stellar album - a fantastic and beautiful journey.
Hector gave it a0:
This album sucks. There are maybe one to three good songs in it but it fully supports why I'm all about Limewire and downloading before buying an album. This is the most useless thing I've ever bought. This band supposedly had so much promise when I read some of the reviews. There is no nostalgia here, there is no artistry here, just a bunch of cliché, over sentimental lyrics that attempt at emotional blackmail so that one may warm up and not be so harsh towards this. There are musicians that have not been sign to the same scale as this band has that deserve far more attention. This albums as though Stacy Q, or Kylie Minogue or Madonna attempted to make a Shoegaze record in 1985. I want my money back. Or at least go into the record store and exchange it for something better. However, I’ve learned my lesson… download before buying. No matter what self-righteous, holier than thou people, who spout the theft propaganda might say.
Erok J gave it a7:
I'd have to say I like maybe 4 or 5 songs on the album. I liked alot of where before the dawn heals us, but this is getting a little too vocal and "regular". Not enough substance to be that big of an album.
Joen h. gave it a10:
Outstanding album. Takes a few listens to properly sink in.
